Divorce - entitlement when property is owned by one person

[JanetJanets]

Does anyone know how I stand with regards to my property which has never had my husband’s name on the mortgage, which has been paid solely by me? Does he have any claim to my property, the deposit for which, was funded by the sale of my former property?

How long have you been together/ married? You need to see a solicitor.

If you are married 50/50

If you are legally married, and the marriage isn’t a short one, he is entitled to the home(it is considered a joint asset by virtue of your marriage) and the starting point of a fair split is considered to be 50/50. It could be that you’ll end up with more than 50%, say, 60/40.
You absolutely need financial advice from a divorce solicitor (all assets like pensions/property/cars will be on the table). You both may be able to come to an agreement… or not. Legal advice is your next step.

Being married means it’s typically 50/50, marriage is legally binding so it’s irrelevant who’s name is against a house.

It'd be useful for you to say which country you're in, OP.

Before we married, which was in 2009, he had, and still has a mortgaged property, in his own name.

I live in the UK.

Then the starting point for both properties would be 50/50. Reiterating that you need legal advice.

You would be entitled to claim on his property too, that is also a marital asset.

Thanks to everyone who has responded. I will be seeking legal advice for sure. Any additional help/comments would be welcomed. It’s not the news I was hoping for🙁

There is no "entitlement" to 50/50 or any other percentage. There is an entitlement to a fair share of the assets. Factors relevant to your case will include assets you brought to the marriage, and the remaining value of the property he still has. Over time the importance of that diminishes. So if you started living together in 2009 it will be less important that it would have been had you started living together 2 years ago.

Look at the factors set out in section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.

I see you have arranged some legal advice, which is crucial.

Hello again, we have decided upon a no-fault divorce and both of us are in agreement that we should keep our own assets, not making a claim on one another’s pensions etc.
We have completed form D81 as per my solicitor’s request, however my solicitor is saying he very much doubts the Judge would accept the terms of our agreement, because of the weighting of assets (in my favour).

My solicitor suggests two options; that he could draft a Consent Order and that we submit it to the Court after the conditional order of divorce has been granted. If it is rejected by the Judge we will then make representations and explain why the Order should be made.
The Court could order for my husband and I to attend a short hearing in person at a local Family Court so that we can explain the basis of the Order and for each of us to confirm that the terms are agreed, although the Judge could still refuse to make the Order even after hearing us in person.
The second option is not to have an Order and just rely on an agreement, possibly with the terms being incorporated in a Separation Agreement which apparently is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons:
The first is that a Separation Agreement does not have the seal of judicial approval and it would be open to either of us to make an application to the Court for a Financial Remedy Order. There is no time limit for making these claims unless my husband remarries without having previously made a Court application. In this situation, unless he has already applied for financial orders before he remarries, he is caught in the ‘remarriage trap’ the effect of which is that he loses the right to make financial claims against me.
My solicitor advises that it is therefore more satisfactory for our respective financial claims to be brought to an end by way of a Court Order.

Does anyone have any advice for me, please?
Could my husband and I agree to a Separation Agreement and then sign an Affidavit to the effect we would never make a claim against each other’s assets, for example?

Get a consent order even if you have to go in front of a judge and it takes longer.

If you win the lottery in 8 years time due to the length of your marriage he can come back and make a claim for a share of it.

I've just divorced in very similar circumstances, except that there was only one house - mine. We went the consent order route, with my solicitor having carefully explained the circumstances and that both parties were agreed to it...and the Court signed it off.

So it is possible but your solicitor needs to explain things carefully.

I'm at the consent order stage and contemplating whether to bother but I've been advised that judges rarely question them if there's agreement and both sides have full capacity

that's exactly what I was told @gogohmm , it's all decided on the basis of need (for children for example) and if both parties have signed to say they are ok with it and have taken legal advice/have declined to take legal advice, then it will ideally go through ok. My solicitor said they couldn't guarantee that it would but they thought it was important to try.

We had a slightly unusual consent order (I did not claim against his pension and allowed him to pay me the balance of the agreed share of the equity at an agreed point a few years into the future). As far as I recall I had to make a statement for the solicitor that this was fair and right given all the circumstances (almost that vague) and it went through OK.

Part of me now slightly regrets not having gone for his pension, or more equity, as I could retire sooner, but he’s basically a good bloke and my DS’s dad, so I could not have done anything that would have left him in a bad position.

We drafted a consent order that was heavily in my favour in my divorce. Partly because I had put a large sum down on the house as a deposit, although luckily that was protected, and also because ex owed me a large sum of money. Supported by a sigend and dated letter from my ex.
We also agreed not to touch each others pensions (mine I had started over 20 years previously, he had never bothered, and so had only had his a couple of years)
It was refused by the judge, I then wrote a very detailed letter explaining why we had come to the agreement we had, stating that we were both more than happy with our decisions, and we both felt it to be fair and just. This was signed and dated by both of us and sent back to court. And it went through.

Have u been married 10 years or more?
My friend was living in her hubby’s house and bcos they had been together she was entitled to 50% of the house.

Your solicitor has given you good advice.

If you divorce without a consent order, it is open to either of you to make a financial claim against the other at a later date. You and your husband may be happy now but, if he falls on hard times or hears that you've won the lottery, he would be able to come back for more in the absence of a consent order. The only way you can prevent that would be by getting a consent order. Signing an affidavit or whatever won't help. I would strongly recommend getting a consent order.

In terms of the split, you could try and see if the court will accept your agreement. But, given what your solicitor has said, you need to be prepared for the possibility that the court will tell you to rethink the split.

We have been married for 14 years. The house we live in has been paid 100% by me. All bills, apart from broadband, have been paid by me.
My husband owns a property which he rents although the money has never been used in the marital home. We have never had any joint accounts.

This is misleading.

It's not really unexpected though - when married, assets are joint - so will be split when you divorce.
It does mean you'll be entitled to half (in theory) of his assets, though - so it's not the end of the world.

Unfortunately that's just how the system is set up - it's fair(ish) to everyone, as you can't expect to retain all assets after being married for 14 years.

I’m not an expert by any means, but my solicitor told me to get the consent order agreed BEFORE finalising the divorce. Ours was also arguably in my favour but my solicitor explained why and ExH sent supporting documentation making it clear he agreed. Once it was signed off by court, we then finalised the divorce.

I got the lions share. My ex didn't take legal advice despite my sol and mortgage company advising this. We didn't even do form E, just the initial finance one. Judge signed consent order, we weren't called into court.